[_Saranac_, _December_ 24, 1887.]
MY DEAR COLVIN,—Thank you for your explanations. I have done no more
Virgil since I finished the seventh book, for I have, first been eaten up
with Taine, and next have fallen head over heels into a new tale, _The
Master of Ballantrae_. No thought have I now apart from it, and I have
got along up to page ninety-two of the draft with great interest. It is
to me a most seizing tale: there are some fantastic elements; the most is
a dead genuine human problem—human tragedy, I should say rather. It will
be about as long, I imagine, as _Kidnapped_.